GMV leads the integration of an Autonomous Collision Avoidance system under the ESA Space Safety Programme

GMV is leading a new activity aimed at deploying an integrated ground-based Autonomous Collision Avoidance system, addressing the growing operational challenges posed by space debris and the rapid increase in satellite numbers.

Today, more than 30,000 space objects bigger than 5 cm are catalogued and routinely tracked, including more than 10,000 operational satellites, while hundreds of thousands of smaller debris objects are estimated to exist in Earth orbit. This rapidly evolving environment represents a significant and increasing risk to space infrastructure, particularly for large fleets and satellite constellations.

To mitigate collision risks, public institutions, such as the US Space Force 19^th Space Defense Squadron (19SDS) and the European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking (EUSST) consortium, provide collision risk assessments to satellite operators worldwide. These services are complemented by private initiatives, including GMV, which deliver commercial space situational awareness and collision risk analysis. While collision assessment has become a routine operational activity, the growing number of alerts, mainly due to the new mega-constellations of satellites, makes traditional processes increasingly impractical and costly. This creates a clear need for reliable, end-to-end automation.

In this context, the new activity led by GMV, with the support of Guardtime and Politecnico di Milano as subcontractors, focuses on the integration and deployment of a fully automated collision avoidance system. It will therefore deliver a new integrated version of the system ready for shadow operations, enabling satellite operators to test advanced autonomous functions within their own operational environments and provide direct feedback ahead of operational adoption.

This activity will integrate core software elements developed in previous ESA’s Space Safety Programme projects: AutoCA, the autonomous collision assessment and avoidance software developed under CREAM#1; AutoSTM, the coordination platform to coordinate collision avoidance between satellite operators developed under CREAM#3; and STCM, developed under CREAM#4 to support monitoring of coordination processes. The integrated system will support automated decision-making, secure data exchange and coordinated manoeuvre planning between operators.

The activity will demonstrate and mature decision-support and coordination capabilities for collision avoidance manoeuvres, supporting safer and more scalable satellite operations in increasingly congested orbits.